NWO Observer NewsBlog

And The Winner Is… Iraq Oil Development Contracts Awarded to Shell and Petronas

2009-12-12T20:21:00.000+01:00

Iraq has the world’s third largest oil reserves. BBC News reports:

A joint venture between the UK’s Shell and Malaysia’s Petronas oil companies has won the right to develop Iraq’s giant Majnoon oil field.

A total of 44 companies took part in a bid for 10 fields in the second such auction since the invasion in 2003. Shell and Petronas beat a rival bid from France’s Total and China’s CNPC.

Although Majnoon is a huge oil field, with reserves of 13 billion barrels of oil, it currently produces just 46,000 barrels per day.

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Extent of Blackwater and CIA Collaboration Uncovered

2009-12-12T15:05:00.000+01:00

New details of Blackwater participation in clandestine CIA raids detail the extent to which private security contractors were involved in covert government antiterror operations.

According to former employees and current and former American intelligence officials, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions, Blackwater security guards participated in clandestine raids to capture or kill suspected insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and in transportation of detainees on CIA flights.

The raids against suspects were said to occur almost nightly between 2004 and 2006, the height of the Iraqi insurgency. Several of the former Blackwater employees said the lines dividing the government-sanctioned agencies (the CIA and the military) and Blackwater began to blur.

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Copenhagen climate change summit: The world is COOLING not warming says scientist Peter Taylor

2009-12-12T15:02:00.000+01:00

In his provocative book Chill, he warns that the world is cooling not warming and that solutions proposed at Copenhagen ignore the risks of a possible return of the Ice Age...

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President Obama 'creating torture impunity'

2009-12-11T21:08:00.001+01:00

A US civil rights group says that President Barack Obama by creating impunity is following his predecessor into allowing torture policies to continue in the country.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said on Thursday that the US president has failed to provide accountability on torture.

Director of ACLU's National Security Project Jameel Jaffer said "the Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture and now the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity."

"We're frustrated by the growing gap between (the) Obama administration's rhetoric on accountability and the reality," Jaffer added.

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Israel arrests leader of 'apartheid wall' protesters

2009-12-11T13:11:00.001+01:00

Israeli soldiers arrest the leader of non-violent protests against Israel's segregation wall in the West Bank.

Friends of the 38-year-old Abdullah Abu Rahmeh say that Israeli soldiers broke into his home on Thursday night and arrested him.

They said the sole reason for his arrest was part of the Israeli plan to crush the anti-apartheid non-violent movement and also stop rallies being conducted every week for the last five years.

Since 2005, demonstrators led by Abu Rahmeh have marched every Friday from the village of Bilin to the wall that slices off 60 percent of the village land.

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Another US soldier loses life in Iraq

2009-12-11T13:09:00.000+01:00

The United States military says another American soldier has lost his life due to non-combat injuries in conflict-stricken Iraq.

"A Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldier died Dec. 10, of non-combat related injuries," according to a US military statement issued on Thursday.

The United States military also announced that the incident is currently under investigation. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of the next of kin.

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Food Stamps Go to a Record 37.2 Million, USDA Says

2009-12-10T20:52:00.001+01:00

A record 37.2 million people, or about one out of every eight Americans, received food stamps in September, as the recession drove a surging jobless rate, according to a government report.

Recipients of the subsidy for retail-food purchases climbed 18 percent from a year earlier, according to a statement posted today on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Web site. Participation has set records for 10 straight months.

The government boosted food aid as unemployment soared, heading to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October. The jobless rate cooled to 10 percent last month, the Labor Department said on Dec. 4.

“We’ve been working to get that money out the door” to families that need assistance, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said last week in an interview.

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Chomsky says Israel, 'US military base'

2009-12-10T20:24:00.001+01:00

Renowned American sociopolitical analyst Noam Chomsky says Israel functions as Washington's main weapons storage base in the Middle East.

"Israel is essentially a US military base, the US positions weapons there, that's a very close military and intelligence tie," the Jewish academic told Press TV on Wednesday while explaining the complexity of relations between Washington and Tel Aviv.

Commenting on the weapons that Israel received from the US before launching its 2007-2008 offensive in the Gaza Strip, Chomsky said that the exchange of weapons between the two sides was not surprising.

"[Israel] is receiving weapons constantly. In fact, weapons were sent during the invasion of Gaza. They tried to send them, they were supposed to send them from Greece, and Greece refused to ship them," he said.

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Afghans protest civilian killings by US forces

2009-12-10T20:23:00.001+01:00

Hundreds of Afghans have taken to the streets of the capital Kabul to protest a recent NATO airstrike which killed a number of civilians in the war-ravaged country.

About 300 people marched towards the UN office in Kabul to express their anger.

Similar demonstrations have been held in the cities of Nangarhar and Mehtar Lam.

The air raid which was coordinated between Afghan and foreign forces was carried out over the eastern province of Kunar on Monday.

The rising number of civilian casualties has surged Afghan anger with foreign troops in the country.

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HRW: US cluster bombs threaten Iraqi lives

2009-12-10T20:22:00.001+01:00

The Human Rights Watch has raised alarm over the cluster ammunitions left strewn all over Iraq by the US-led coalition forces attacks during the Persian Gulf wars.

The organization says during 1991 and 2003, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom dropped over 61,000 cluster bombs on Iraqi soil.

The rights group adds the shocking extent of unexploded cluster bombs, dropped by coalition planes in Iraq, shows the vast area of the country is at danger from cluster bombs lying in cities, farmland and on the main arteries across the country.

Experts in clearing conflict zones of unexploded bombs say that millions of Iraqi adults and children are at risk, along with humanitarian aid workers, United Nations workers, and military personnel.

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Israel continues WB settlements building apace

2009-12-10T20:18:00.001+01:00

Israel's largest extra-parliamentary and oldest peace movement, Peace Now, has presented evidence that shows Tel Aviv is not fulfilling its promise to freeze West Bank construction activities.

According to data gathered by Peace Now, the rate of construction in the West Bank was far more than any other area in the occupied Palestinian lands.

Israel has approved construction of some 3,492 housing units for approximately 300,000 settlers living in the settlements. This averages to approximately 1,167 units for every hundred thousand inhabitants.

The non-governmental Israeli organization went on to note that Israel is currently building 836 housing units for every hundred thousand inhabitants across the West Bank.

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Pakistan seals border with Afghanistan

2009-12-08T12:35:00.000+01:00

Pakistani authorities have sealed their border with neighboring Afghanistan, after reports suggesting that the Taliban militants are fleeing into country's tribal areas.

“Border security forces in Killa Saifullah of south western Balochsitan province have sealed the Pak-Afghan border in order to halt illegal entry of people into Pakistan from Afghanistan,” an interior ministry official told Press TV correspondent in Islamabad on Monday.

The official said the border was sealed amid allegations that the Taliban leaders travel across borders to find shelter in Pakistan's tribal areas.

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100th British soldier killed in Afghanistan in 2009

2009-12-08T12:33:00.000+01:00

With the loss of the 100th British soldier in Afghanistan, the year 2009 is the bloodiest year for the UK military since the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina.

The British defense ministry reported on Monday evening that the soldier was shot dead in Helmand Province in the south of the war-torn country.

In a condolence message, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the entire nation stands by the families and friends of all the 100 soldiers killed in 2009.

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US raid kills 12 civilians in east Afghanistan

2009-12-08T12:32:00.001+01:00

More than a dozen people have been killed in a nighttime raid by US forces on a civilian house in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman, witnesses say.

The attack took place on Monday night when US soldiers stormed a house at Armal locality in the provincial capital Mehtar Lam, witnesses told Press TV correspondent.

At least 12 people, among them a woman, were killed in the attack.

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Massive truck bomb kills 12 in east Pakistan

2009-12-08T12:29:00.001+01:00

A massive blast has hit near military and security installations in the eastern Pakistani city of Multan, killing at least a dozen people and leaving more injured.

The explosion happened around noon on Tuesday when an explosive-laden truck went off at Qasim Bela in Cantt area, leaving 12 people killed, Press TV correspondent reported.

Police officials said there were security guards among the dead and that nearly 32 people were injured in the incident.

The bomb, apparently aimed at the local office of Pakistan's secret agency (ISI), jolted a number of surrounding buildings and broke the windows of houses half a kilometer away.

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Israel to build wall on border with Egypt

2009-12-08T12:28:00.000+01:00

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to build a wall on the border with Egypt to prevent African migrants from changing Israel's racial balance.

Netanyahu believes building a wall along the southern borders with Egypt is an "unavoidable and strategic" measure, which Tel Aviv must take to ensure that thousands of migrants do not cross over from Africa, Israel's Maariv daily reported Tuesday.

According to Maariv, the prime minister sees the migration of Africans as a problem that may escalate in the coming years and disrupt the demographic balance of southern Israel.

The paper writes that from Netanyahu's point of view migration from Africa has already changed the faces of the two cities of Arad and Eilat in southern Israel.

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US Drone Strike Kills at Least Three in Pakistan

2009-12-08T12:13:00.001+01:00

A US drone launched a pair of missiles at a car in Aspalga Village, North Waziristan overnight, killing three suspected militants and injuring three other apparent bystanders in the tiny village outside of Miranshah.

The attack was the first US drone strike since President Obama’s Afghan escalation speech, at which time he is also said to have quietly approved an escalation of US strikes against Pakistani territory.

It is just the latest of several dozen air strikes against Pakistan’s tribal areas in recent years. President Obama has dramatically increased the rate and severity of the attacks since taking office.
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CIA can access EU bank records

2009-12-07T13:50:00.000+01:00

The CIA is to be given broad access to the bank records of millions of Britons under a European Union plan to fight terrorism.The Brussels agreement comes into force in two months and requires the 27 EU member states to grant requests for banking information made by the US under its terrorist finance tracking programme.

In a little noticed information note released last week, the EU said it had agreed that Europeans would be compelled to release the information to the CIA “as a matter of urgency”. The records will be kept in a US database for five years before being deleted. Critics say the system is “lopsided” because there is no reciprocal arrangement under which the UK authorities can easily access the bank accounts of US citizens in America.

They also say the plan to sift through cross-border and domestic EU bank accounts gives US intelligence more scope to consult our bank accounts than is granted to law enforcement agencies in UK or the rest of Europe, where a judge must authorise a specific search after receiving a sworn statement from a police officer.

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Six more US banks fail

2009-12-07T11:00:00.001+01:00

Amid recession and loads of bad assets, six more banks have been shut down bringing the number of US banks failed in 2009 to 130.

On Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) took over AmTrust Bank — the fourth-largest Cleveland-based bank to fail this year. With about USD 8 billion in deposits and USD 12 billion in assets, it is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated USD 2 billion.

Last year regulators had told the bank to limit their loans since they were concerned that the bank's reserves against potential losses were dangerously low.

AmTrust also had branches in Phoenix and Florida.

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Roadside bomb kills foreign troop in Afghanistan

2009-12-07T10:57:00.000+01:00

An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier has been killed in a land mine explosion in Afghanistan.

The foreign convoy hit a land mine when on patrol in Sayed Abad district in Wardak province late Saturday, Shahedullah Shahed, spokesman for Wardak's governor, told a Press TV correspondent on Sunday.

A military vehicle was also damaged in the roadside bomb explosion, Shahed added.

The nationality of the killed soldier was not declared.

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Viva Palestina will head to Gaza

2009-12-07T10:56:00.001+01:00

An international aid convoy is scheduled to take humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip from London, marking the first year anniversary of Israel's three week war against Gazans.

The Viva Palestina convoy of 250 vehicles will deliver medical, humanitarian and educational aid to Palestinians who are suffering a long-running Israeli blockade on their territory since Hamas took control of the region in June 2007.

The convoys will depart from London on Sunday to pass through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece and Turkey.

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6 policemen killed in Iraq violence

2009-12-07T10:54:00.000+01:00

At least six Iraqi policemen have lost their lives in the latest string of terrorist attacks targeting security forces across Iraq.

In the first development, two members of Iraqi police personnel were killed on Sunday after a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) ripped through southern Kirkuk.

The explosion happened on al-Korneesh Street while an emergency police patrol vehicle was passing the location. The incident claimed the lives of two security agents and inflicted heavy damage to the vehicle they were aboard, according to Brig. Sarhad Qadir.

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Pakistan huge blast rocks Peshawar

2009-12-07T10:52:00.001+01:00

At least five people have been killed and 49 others wounded in a blast outside a court building in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar.

The explosion occurred Monday following recent attacks in Peshawar that lies on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt.

Senior police official Mohammad Karim Khan confirmed the casualties to AFP.

The cause of the blast was yet to be determined, Khan added.

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US sounds fresh warning to Iran again

2009-12-07T10:51:00.001+01:00

While the Western powers have been pressuring Iran to accept a US-backed proposal over Iran's nuclear fuel supply, the White House says it is still open to nuclear negotiations with Tehran but the time is running out.

US National Security Advisor Jim Jones said on Sunday that the White House is "still open to nuclear talks" with Tehran, but "the clock is ticking" towards the end of the year.

The remarks comes as Western powers, spearheaded by the US, have been keeping the heat on Iran to accept a proposal which would see Iran ship its Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) abroad for further processing and have it returned for use in the Tehran research reactor, which produces medicine.

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Patriot Act Renewal Moving Forward

2009-12-04T19:50:00.001+01:00

Renewal of two controversial Patriot Act provisions set to expire at the end of the year have been approved by House and Senate Committees over the past month, and appear headed for floor votes in both bodies. President Obama has endorsed extending the provisions.

The two provisions include the “records” rule and the “roving wiretaps” provision. The so-called “records” rule grants federal officials with a court order the power to force private parties such as businesses, hospitals, and libraries to hand over "any tangible thing" they believe has "relevance" to a terrorist investigation.

“Roving wiretaps” allow wiretapping multiple lines of communication without informing F(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) courts which specific phone lines or communication media are being targeted.

President Obama has reversed himself on the issue, since he once opposed Patriot Act provisions as a fishing expedition by federal snoops in a December 15, 2005 Senate speech.

Nine killed in Tikrit bombing attack

2009-12-04T11:05:00.000+01:00

At least nine people have lost their lives and ten others sustained injuries in a bomb explosion that ripped through a popular market in Tikrit, located in Iraq's northern Salahuddin province.

The terrorist attack on a crowded street targeted Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Subhi al-Fahal, who was conducting a patrol in the vicinity of al-Atibaa market, in central Tikrit, an Iraqi police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on condition of anonymity.

He added that Fahal -- the commander of the Salahuddin riot police -- alongside four of his bodyguards, as well as four civilians were killed in the incident. Ten people, among them two police officers, were wounded in the bombing in Tikrit, situated 140 km (87 miles) northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river.

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EU: Israel illegally annexing Al-Quds ‎

2009-12-04T11:03:00.001+01:00

The European Union accuses Israel of actively pursuing the annexation of East Jerusalem Al-Quds, undermining hopes for peace with Palestinians.

Diplomats in Brussels say an EU meeting on Monday is to likely to discuss the stalled Middle East peace process, which is continuously being obstructed by Israel.

East Jerusalem Al-Quds has been seen for years as the prospective capital of a future Palestinian state. This is one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East peace talks, which have been suspended for almost a year.

The annual report drafted by the EU heads of missions in Jerusalem Al-Quds has condemned Israel's policy of expanding illegal settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes and eviction orders in 2009.

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Kucinich: Afghan war, threat to US national security

2009-12-04T11:02:00.000+01:00

Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich has severely reprimanded US President Barack Obama for sending additional troops to Afghanistan.

Kucinich said in a statement on Thursday that extending the Afghan war would destabilize the United States at home.

"We are deeply in debt. Our GDP is down. Our manufacturing is down. Our savings are down. The value of the dollar is down. Our trade deficit is up. Business failures are up. Bankruptcies are up," his statement read.

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Obama 'to expand drone strikes' in Pakistan

2009-12-04T11:00:00.001+01:00

The administration of Nobel peace laureate, President Barack Obama, has authorized an expansion of drone attacks on Pakistan's troubled tribal regions, a new report says.

The New York Times report also says US and Pakistani officials are discussing the possibility of CIA operated drone strikes in Pakistan's Baluchistan province for the first time.

The purported aim of the American air strikes is to target militants. But Pakistani media outlets say the raids have mostly killed civilians.

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Govt. Investigation Confirms ABC News Report on Secret CIA Prison

2009-12-03T20:23:00.000+01:00

A Lithuanian government investigation has confirmed an exclusive ABC News report that the CIA operated a secret black site prison in the country, according to a report on Lithuanian television.

According to Lithuania's LNK TV, sources have told investigators that state security was involved in coordinating the construction of the prison, and have also provided the code name of the operation to transport terror detainees to the prison.

Arydas Anusauskas, head of the parliamentary committee investigating the prison, told ABC News he would not comment on the investigation until it is completed. He has previously said the results of the probe will be made public Dec. 22.

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Two Children Die in The Netherlands After Swine Flu Shot

2009-12-03T20:01:00.000+01:00

Two children in The Netherlands died after getting the swine flu shot according to the newspaper, De Telegraaf.

One of the children had a severe heart disease and died 5 days after getting the shot.

The second child developped a fever after being vaccinated. The child appears to have had no underlying condition or sickness that could be attributed as the cause of death.

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Vaclav Klaus: Global Warming a Politician's 'Myth'

2009-12-03T15:52:00.000+01:00

'Many Palestinians deprived of living in Al-Quds'

2009-12-03T15:49:00.001+01:00

Official Israeli figures reveal that the regime stripped a record number of Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem Al-Quds last year.

Some 4,577 Palestinians had their residency rights revoked in 2008, according to the Israeli Interior Ministry.

More than a third of the total number of Palestinians lost their residency since Israel occupied the city in 1967, based on the figures released on Wednesday.

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Gates: no deadline for US pullout from Afghanistan

2009-12-03T15:47:00.000+01:00

The US administration clearly says plans to start bringing soldiers back from Afghanistan in 18 months might slip and that no deadlines can be set.

"Quite frankly, I detest the phrase exit strategy," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, promising "a narrow focus" on routing al-Qaeda with "observable progress on clear objectives."

"What is essential -- for our national security -- is that we have two long-term partners in Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.

"I think the president, as commander in chief, always has the option to adjust his decisions," Gated added a day after US President Barack Obama unveiled a plan to send 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan.

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US middle class hit hard by current economic vows

2009-12-03T15:45:00.000+01:00

America might witness the fall of its middle class as findings by a Congressional committee reveal disturbing data on the latest economic recession woes.

A recent study by the Congressional Oversight Panel on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) illustrates the exposure to economic dangers of an increasing number of middle class families in the years to come.

The late November research conducted under the supervision of the TARP chair, Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, details information on how poverty edges its way upward from the underclass citizens to middle class Americans.

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NATO pledges 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan

2009-12-02T20:01:00.001+01:00

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance will send at least 5,000 more troops to fight militancy in Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels that the NATO member states were ready to throw their support behind US President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy.

"I can confirm that the allies and our partners will do more, substantially more. In 2010, the non-US members of this mission will send at least 5,000 more soldiers to this operation, and probably a few thousands on top of that," he said.

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West prepares to draw up sanctions against Iran

2009-12-02T19:59:00.000+01:00

Britain said it could begin drawing up proposals before the end of the year as international condemnation of Tehran's announcement grew.

A spokesman for Gordon Brown said time was running out for Iran to engage in talks.

"The priority always is to get the talks to work," he said. "We would then review at the right moment, and maybe it's towards the end of this year, whether we pursue the second route of a dual track policy which is obviously, you think about things like sanctions."

Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, also said new measures were possible. "If Iran rejects the hand that has reached out, it must expect heavier sanctions," he said.

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Britain faces return to Victorian levels of poverty

2009-12-02T19:56:00.001+01:00

Labour's strategy for tackling poverty has reached the end of the road and Britain risks a return to Victorian levels of inequality, according to a major two-year study seen by The Independent.

With 20 per cent of the population still stuck in poverty, the report calls for sweeping reform of the tax and welfare systems under which higher earners would finance more generous, universal benefits. The £43,888-a-year ceiling on national insurance contributions (NICs) would be abolished, so people earning more would pay NICs at 11 per cent on all their income above that level, instead of the current 1 per cent.

The study, by the Labour-affiliated Fabian Society and Webb Memorial Trust, argues that Gordon Brown's "quiet redistribution" of wealth now lacks public support – and declares that one of the reasons is Labour's tough language about benefit fraud and claimants.

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South Korean student dies after receiving A/H1N1 vaccine

2009-12-02T12:01:00.000+01:00

Digital Journal reported earlier this month that two Chinese people immediately died after taking the H1N1 vaccine, a Quebec man passed away moments after the vaccine and that others have been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

Now, according to Xinhua, a South Korean student has died four days after receiving the A/H1N1 vaccination.

The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs revealed that the student, whose identity will not be released to the public, died of cerebral hemorrhage but was unrelated to the inoculation. The Ministry came to this conclusion after the health ministry, the Korea Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Scientific Investigation suggested there was no direct link.

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US military suicides reach new high

2009-12-02T11:58:00.000+01:00

The number of serving American military personnel who took their lives in 2009 has already exceeded last year’s record. These suicides are first of all tragic. Secondly, they indicate the immense psychological harm that the neo-colonial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have inflicted on members of the armed forces.

The US Army, the largest branch of the military, suffered the most dramatic increase. By 16 November, 140 soldiers on active duty and 71 National Guard and Reserve personnel had taken their lives this year—a total of 211. By comparison, there were 52 Army suicides in 2001. The number steadily rose over the following years, reaching 197 in 2008.

The overall suicide rate in the US Army has reached 20.2 per 100,000 personnel. The Marine Corp recorded 42 suicides as of October 31—the same number as in all of 2008 and a rate of more than 19 per 100,000 personnel.

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Evicted Palestinians sleep on the streets outside their homes in East Jerusalem

2009-12-02T11:52:00.000+01:00

Obama's Afghan gambit to cost $30bn

2009-12-02T11:46:00.000+01:00

The financial burden on the US military has increased, as US President Barack Obama announced that a recent troops surge will cost $30 billion this year.

After months of mulling over a new strategy for the deteriorating mission in Afghanistan, Obama finally announced on Tuesday that the US would increase the number of American soldiers in Afghanistan by some 40 percent — or 30,000 extra troops.

In an emphatic speech, Obama told cadets at the prestigious West Point military academy that the troop surge was "in our vital national interest".

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US to increase troops in Afghanistan by 40%

2009-12-02T11:43:00.001+01:00

The US president has decided to raise the number of American troops in Afghanistan by some 40 percent, a move that would see Washington deploy another 30,000 soldiers.

In a live televised speech at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York on Tuesday, Barack Obama said the troops would be deployed in the first part of 2010.

“As commander in chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan,” he told the cadets.

He stated that the fresh troops, who will increase the number of US forces in Afghanistan from 68,000 to 100,000, would focus on targeting the resurgent Taliban, securing key population centers, and training military personnel.

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Brown commits 500 extra troops to Afghanistan

2009-12-01T10:09:00.000+01:00

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has confirmed plans to deploy of 500 more soldiers in Afghanistan in early December.

"I can confirm that we will move to a new force level of 9,500 — the extra troops will deploy in early December to thicken the UK troop presence in central Helmand," Brown told the parliament on Monday.

The UK's total contribution to the eight-year war, however, would amount to 10,000 given the presence of special forces, who are involved in training and civilian activities.

The announcement comes just two days after Brown said London will host a conference on Afghanistan in January 28 to discuss ways of handing over security to the local forces.

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Police official kills six colleagues in Afghanistan

2009-12-01T10:08:00.000+01:00

An Afghan policeman has fired on a checkpoint in Khashrod district in Nimroz province, killing six fellow officers, officials have said.

Authorities said Monday that the policeman escaped to Dil Aram district in the province after killing the six colleagues in the shootout that took place in southern Afghanistan.

Later reports said the shooter was identified and killed in the ensuing gun battle when he started to shoot again.

Earlier this month, an Afghan policeman opened fire at the British convoy killing five UK soldiers in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.

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Israeli tanks target houses in Gaza

2009-12-01T10:07:00.001+01:00

Israeli army tanks have opened fire on houses and farmlands in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, according to a report.

A number of Israeli tanks commenced firing Monday afternoon while withdrawing from an area southeast of the town of Beit Hanoun, which they had entered in the morning, witnesses told Ma'an news agency.

The area where the gunfire was reported lies approximately 800 meters from the Green Line in the farming region of Abu Sufiyah, according to local Palestinian sources.

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US urges France to send more troops to Afghanistan

2009-12-01T10:06:00.001+01:00

The US has asked France to send an additional 1,500 troops to join the coalition forces in Afghanistan as Washington is expected to send at least 30,000 more reinforcements.

On Monday, The daily Le Monde published a report on its website, saying US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the request on Thursday in a telephone call to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

The French Foreign Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied the report.

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Terrorist attacks claim more lives in Iraq

2009-12-01T10:02:00.001+01:00

At least two people have been reported killed and twelve others injured in separate terrorist attacks across violence-ridden Iraq.

In the first incident, eleven persons -- including five policemen and six civilians -- were injured Monday evening when two thermal bombs exploded at the crowded artists' syndicate in Kirkuk's al-Hawijah district.

Security forces quickly moved in to cordon off the area and launched an investigation into the motives behind the attack. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital and two persons were detained on suspicion of involvement in the bombings, Brig. Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

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Israel constructs 25 new units in West Bank

2009-12-01T10:01:00.000+01:00

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has okayed the construction of 25 new housing units in the West Bank settlement of Keidar despite international calls to the contrary.

During a phone conversation with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday, Netanyahu instructed Barak to stop preventing the construction of the new units in the West Bank, claiming the units do not fall under the cabinet's decision to halt settlement construction activities for 10 months.

Tel Aviv had earlier agreed to freeze all settlement activities, except in Jerusalem Al-Quds, for 10 months in a bid to re-launch stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

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NATO allies may provide 6,000 additional troops for Afghan war in response to Obama's call

2009-11-28T18:28:00.001+01:00

NATO governments may increase their fighting forces in Afghanistan by up to 6,000 soldiers in response to President Barack Obama's expected call for tens of thousands of additional U.S. service members, diplomats said Friday.

On Tuesday, Obama is expected to announce his new battle plan for Afghanistan, including an increase in U.S. forces and a strategy for ending America's military involvement there. Administration officials say Obama's plan will likely include the deployment of about 30,000 additional U.S. and allied soldiers.

NATO has scheduled a conference for Dec. 7 during which other allied nations will be able to pledge their own reinforcements.

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Keiser on 'Tsunami alert': Dubai debt crisis awakes storm?

2009-11-28T17:57:00.000+01:00

Chavez: Israel aims to exterminate Palestinians

2009-11-28T17:51:00.000+01:00

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that Israel is aiming to 'exterminate the Palestinian nation' and that he backs the establishment of East Jerusalem Al-Quds as capital of an independent Palestinian state.

"We are on the side of the Palestinian people's memorable struggle against the genocidal state of Israel that knocks down, kills and aims to terminate the Palestinian people," Chavez told acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in Caracas on Friday night.

"We reiterate our greatest commitment and our greatest solidarity for the creation of an independent Palestinian state with the holy city of Jerusalem Al-Quds as its capital," he added.

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US, UK desperately wanted 'smoking gun' in Iraq

2009-11-28T17:50:00.001+01:00

Former British ambassador to the United States Christopher Meyer admitted that British and American officials were desperately looking for a 'smoking gun' that would justify their invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

"We found ourselves scrabbling for the smoking gun, which was another way of saying, 'It's not that Saddam has to prove himself innocent, we now bloody well have to prove he's guilty.' And we've never -- we, the Americans, the British -- we've never really recovered from that," he said.

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US Military Unveils New Prison in Afghanistan

2009-11-28T17:46:00.000+01:00

KABUL — The U.S. military has announced the opening of a new prison on Bagram Air Base. The prison, costing 60 million dollars, will hold up to 1,100 prisoners at any one time.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, a U.S. Army lawyer who undertook an examination this year of Afghan and American prisons, said that the prison would be handed over to the Afghan government, though it is unclear when that handover will take place.

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Israel okays 28 new settlement buildings, despite freeze

2009-11-27T13:41:00.000+01:00

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday ordered the IDF to issue a temporary freeze order, but at the same time allowed the construction of 28 new public buildings in settlements.

Meanwhile, Haaretz has learned that the state is expected to ask the Supreme Court for more time to evacuate illegal outposts. The State Attorney's Office is expected to update the Supreme Court by next week on three court rulings that have not been carried out, for the evacuation of outposts at Eli, Horsha, and Netiv Ha'avot, as well as six other locations in the West Bank.

Haaretz also learned that in discussions on the matter between security and law officials, the state intends to ask the court for more time in order to prepare a suitable policy for razing the illegal outposts, in view of the developments related to the freeze in settlement construction.

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Pakistani PM: US troop surge destabilizing

2009-11-27T11:02:00.000+01:00

The Pakistani Premier Yousaf Raza Gillani says that the US decision to send additional troops to the neighboring Afghanistan can destabilize his country.

Gillani told a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday that the troop surge could force Taliban militants to infiltrate into Pakistani southwestern province of Balochistan that borders Helmand.

"Our only concern is that when US sends more troops to Afghanistan's Helmand area, if there will be influx of militants they will be moving to Baluchistan."

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Merkel under fire over deadly air-strike in Afghanistan

2009-11-27T11:00:00.000+01:00

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is still under fire from opposition parties over a deadly air-strike in Afghanistan back in September.

Opposition parties have called for the resignation of Labor minister Franz Josef Jung who was defense minister at the time of the air raid. They accuse him of withholding information on civilian casualties.

The air-strike was ordered by a German commander and carried out by the US military. It killed nearly 100 people, many of them civilians. This is while the German army's chief of staff Wolfgang Schneiderhan has stepped down over his handling of the air-strike.

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10 mins to Expose Global Warming Scam

2009-11-27T10:21:00.000+01:00

U.S. will be out of Afghanistan by 2017: White House

2009-11-26T13:19:00.000+01:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will not be in Afghanistan eight years from now, the White House said on Wednesday, as President Barack Obama prepared to explain to Americans next week why he is expanding the war effort.

After months of deliberation and fending off Republican charges that he was dithering on Afghanistan while violence there surged, Obama will address the nation on Tuesday on the way forward in the costly and unpopular eight-year war.

He is expected to announce he is sending about 30,000 more troops as part of a new counterinsurgency strategy that will place greater emphasis on accelerating the training of Afghan security forces so that U.S. soldiers can eventually withdraw.

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Man dies in Sweden from the flu shot - now 9 official deaths

2009-11-26T12:30:00.000+01:00

Aftonbladet reports that a man in his fifties died after having received the poisonous Pandemrix "swine flu" shot. He had been through a heart transplant operation and the shot made his body reject the new heart. Authorities in Sweden are now afraid fewer will want to take the vaccine.

"- It can not be said it was wrong to vaccinate this man. We do write on our home page that people who have been through heart transplants belong to the risk group and should get vaccinated. But we have new knowledge now which we can learn from." says Ingemar Persson, case investigator at the Swedish Medical Products Agency. "- The vaccine is the direct or indirect cause of this mans death." he continues.

Several involved agencies and departments will hold a press conference today to try to calm down worried citizens and again claim that the vaccine is "tested and safe".

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6 family members killed in Iraq

2009-11-26T12:18:00.000+01:00

BAGHDAD — Assailants broke into a house and killed six family members before dawn Wednesday in an area north of Baghdad that was once a stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq, Iraqi officials said.

The dead included a couple and two daughters, and two brothers of the husband, according to a police officer in Tarmiyah, 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of the capital. The throats of two women were slit, while the other four people were shot execution-style; two of the couple's other children were not harmed.

A motive for the attack was not immediately clear. The Tarmiyah officer and a police investigator said the Sunni Arab victims were not affiliated with Sunni militiamen, many of them former insurgents, who joined U.S. forces and turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

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Afghanistan war annually costs $1 mn per soldier

2009-11-26T11:49:00.001+01:00

The US burdens an enormous human and financial cost to fight the insurgency in Afghanistan, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs claims.

Gibbs said that it costs about a million dollars per year for each deployed US soldier, beyond the expense of training and maintaining a security force.

Burdened by two wars, the American military already has more than 180,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and will have to draw on the handful of remaining brigades to carry out Obama's plan, expected to see the deployment of some 34,000 more troops in Afghanistan.

More than 800 American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan, and October was the deadliest month since the start of the war in 2001 with 74 US soldiers killed.

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Another blast hits Pakistan's Peshawar

2009-11-26T11:47:00.000+01:00

At least three people, including a head of a police station, have been injured in the latest bomb explosion in Pakistan, police say.

The blast occurred in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday morning, said Hakim Khan, a police officer at the scene of the attack.

Riaz Ulislam, the police station chief, was injured as he was passing by in his vehicle in a residential area of Peshawar near a school.

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CEOs cashed in before Wall Street meltdown

2009-11-25T14:36:00.000+01:00

The CEOs of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, the two investment banks that collapsed during last year's financial meltdown, walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation even as the company's shareholders lost everything, says a new report from Harvard Law School.

The top five executives at Bear Stearns made a total of $1.4 billion from bonuses and equity sales between 2000 and 2008, while the top five executives at Lehman Brothers made around $1 billion during that same period -- the period during which the companies ran up the bad investments that would see them collapse in 2008, according to "The Wages of Failure" (PDF), a report from Harvard Law School's Program on Corporate Governance.

"The people who invested in these companies should feel betrayed," Nell Minow, a compensation expert at the Corporate Library, told NBC's Lisa Myers. "The whole idea of capitalism is that the people provide the capital and the executives take care of it for us. In this case, the people provided the capital, and the executives took it."

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Twin blasts kill dozens in Karbala

2009-11-25T09:46:00.002+01:00

Two consecutive explosions have rocked the Iraqi holy city of Karbala, leaving 26 people killed in the shrine city and more than a score injured.

The incident happened early Wednesday when two bombs within minutes of each other went off at a restaurant in the city.

Police officials said the first bomb targeted diners inside the restaurant in central Karbala around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), injuring several people.

But a second bomb minutes later struck after an ambulance and medics arrived to help the wounded, causing most of the casualties.

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'Secret talks on Iraq invasion began in 2001'

2009-11-25T09:45:00.000+01:00

A former top British intelligence officer says British officials decided in 2001 against participating in talks with their US counterparts about regime change in Iraq.

Peter Ricketts, now permanent secretary at the Home Office, said Tuesday that British officials were aware months before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States that the Bush administration was pressing for the removal of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

US and British officials believed at the time that measures against Iraq were failing. The measures consisted of sanctions, an incentive to lift sanctions if Saddam allowed the United Nations weapons inspectors to return, and the 'no fly' zones over the north and south of Iraq.

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Hide The Decline - Climategate

2009-11-25T09:37:00.000+01:00

Obama to announce Afghanistan surge of over 30,000

2009-11-25T09:18:00.002+01:00

Early next week President Obama will announce a surge of more than 30,000 soldiers in the US occupation of Afghanistan. The increase sets the stage for a deepening of US military violence in Central and South Asia and for a confrontation with the US working class, which increasingly opposes the war.

Citing anonymous Obama administration and military officials, media reports put the increase at between 32,000 and 35,000 soldiers, who will be deployed in waves beginning in March. It will be Obama’s second major escalation in Afghanistan. Soon after entering office he authorized an increase of 21,000 soldiers.

While not revealing details of the plan, Obama declared at a Tuesday joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he intends to “finish the job” in Afghanistan. “I feel very confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we’re doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supportive,” Obama said.

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GlaxoSmithKline pulls swine flu vaccines in Canada

2009-11-25T00:28:00.000+01:00

LONDON – Canadian doctors have been advised not to use a batch of 170,000 swine flu vaccines after six reports of serious allergic reactions among recipients, but there are no similar reports from other countries, pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline PLC said Tuesday.

Authorities routinely monitor vaccines for any signals of problems, such as the allergic reactions that do occur, rarely, every year. Company spokeswoman Gwenan White said that GlaxoSmithKline advised medical staff in Canada ast week to refrain from using one batch of the vaccine while they look into reports that that it might have caused more allergic reactions than normal.

Six people in Canada had suffered an allergic reaction, said Tim Vail, the spokesman for Canada's health minister. The batch contained about 170,000 doses. It was not immediately clear how many had been administered, although Vail said the majority had been.

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Israel holds over 370 Palestinian children captive

2009-11-24T14:33:00.002+01:00

The media liaison at the Palestinian ministry in charge of prisoners' affairs says that Israel is currently holding captive more than 370 child detainees; all under the age of 18.

"Child detainees are sent to courts that prosecute cases of adult detainees. This is a flagrant violation of International Law. Dozens of detained Palestinian children undergo a series of harsh trials under a legal system that treats them the same as apprehended adults," Riyadh al-Ashqar told the official Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV network on Monday.

Al-Ashqar went on to note that the child detainees are not immune to 'egregious abuses', adding mistreatment and torture in Israeli detention facilities are not uncommon.

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Israeli Soldiers Admit to War Crimes in Gaza War

2009-11-24T14:08:00.001+01:00

US suicide rate rises as recession continues

2009-11-24T14:05:00.000+01:00

New alarming statistics suggest that the number of suicides in the US has increased with the effects of the recession.

The latest surveys show the number of Americans killing themselves because of issues related with the economy may be climbing in the recessionary year of 2008 compared with that of 2007.

“Suicide among families for financial breakdown is of great importance and certainly preventable. However, it leaves incurable scars in families with such financial situation,” an American psychologist and Press TV contributor Mala Coleman King says.

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Israeli Spokesman`s making a complete arse of himself

2009-11-24T11:26:00.000+01:00

Ukraine virus update - flu deaths rise to 354, but Ukraine Health Officials plan to lift quarantine

2009-11-24T11:22:00.001+01:00

The Ukraine virus, which is similar to the swine flu, according to the World Health Organization, has now claimed the lives of 354 people since the beginning of October. According to recent reports, the Ukraine government intends to lift the quarantines and other protective measures put in place to protect against the spread of the Ukraine flu.

Ukraine flu outbreak symptoms

The Ukraine flu results in a total breakdown of the lungs, according to Doctor Victor Bachinsky. This flu virus causes bleeding in the lungs, which results in the blackened lungs that have caused alarm in witnesses to Ukraine flu victims.

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2 killed, 4 injured in Israeli attack on Gaza

2009-11-24T11:20:00.000+01:00

At least two Palestinians have been killed and four others wounded in an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.

Gaza hospital sources announced the reception of two bodies late on Monday, along with four other victims who had received medium to critical injuries, after an Israeli tank shelled the eastern Gaza city neighborhood of Shejaeya.

The shelling caused serious damage in the densely populated area, reports say, but there are no more details on the incident.

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UK: The DNA snatchers: Police arresting innocents just to grab genetic details for Big Brother database

2009-11-24T11:18:00.000+01:00

Police are arresting innocent people in order to get their hands on as many DNA samples as possible, senior Government advisers revealed last night.

The Human Genetics Commission said the Big Brother tactic was creating a 'spiral of suspicion' among the public.

The panel - which contains some of Britain's leading scientists and academics - said officers should no longer routinely take samples at the point of arresting a suspect.

They also called for all police - including support staff - to place their own DNA on the national database in a show of solidarity with a public being routinely placed under suspicion.

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US military loses another GI in Iraq

2009-11-23T12:28:00.000+01:00

Another US soldier has been killed in Iraq.

"A Multi-National Division South soldier was killed in action," according to a US Army statement issued on Sunday. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of the next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

The latest casualty brings the death toll for US troops in Iraq to nine for the month of November and 145 so far this year.

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4 US soldiers killed in 24 hours in Afghanistan

2009-11-23T12:26:00.000+01:00

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)says that four American soldiers have been killed in the past 24 hours in Afghanistan.

The military said on Monday that the soldiers were killed in separate attacks in the war-ravaged country.

Two US soldiers were killed in a homemade bomb blast in the south, where another soldier was killed in a militant attack on Sunday, ISAF said in a statement.

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CIA 'ran secret prison for al-Qaeda' in Lithuanian riding school

2009-11-22T16:46:00.000+01:00

A former horse riding school in the tiny Baltic state of Lithuania was used as a secret CIA prison to hold and interrogate top al-Qaeda terrorists, it has been claimed.

The allegations have sparked a parliamentary inquiry after President Dalia Grybauskaite said she harboured "indirect suspicions" that such a facility existed.

According to unnamed former intelligence operatives quoted by ABC News, the CIA built the secret jail in 2004 and used it for more than a year, flying in at least eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists from Afghanistan.

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Obama Threatens Iran with New Sanctions

2009-11-22T16:00:00.000+01:00

PARIS — Senior officials from Western powers discussed the possibility of new sanctions on Iran on Friday for flouting the United Nations Security Council’s demands and expressed disappointment that Iran had not yet accepted a draft agreement to export most of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.

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France - Monsanto Guilty Of Lying About Round-Up

2009-11-22T15:47:00.000+01:00

France's highest court has ruled that U.S. agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup. The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its herbicide as "biodegradable" and claimed it "left the soil clean." Roundup is the world's best-selling herbicide.

French environmental groups had brought the case in 2001 on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient, is classed as "dangerous for the environment" by the European Union.

In the latest ruling, France's Supreme Court upheld two earlier convictions against Monsanto by the Lyon criminal court in 2007, and the Lyon court of appeal in 2008, the AFP news agency reports.

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'2009 was bloodiest year for Israeli war machine'

2009-11-22T15:06:00.001+01:00

Israeli aggression has resulted in the death of more Palestinians this year than in any other year over the past two decades, says an Israeli rights group.

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem, published a report notifying that Israeli aggression had killed 1,387 Palestinians including more than 300 children so far this year.

Most of the deaths occurred after Tel Aviv ordered three weeks of unabated aerial and artillery bombardment of the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.

Medical sources put the number of deaths from the attacks at more than 1,400.

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Israeli jets attack Gaza, 7 Palestinians injured

2009-11-22T15:01:00.002+01:00

Israeli jets have carried out air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip, injuring seven Palestinians.

On Sunday, Palestinian medical workers and witnesses said other areas targeted by Israeli planes included a caravan in the northern Gaza Strip and smuggling tunnels in the south under the border with Egypt, the New York Times reported.

In addition, the Press TV correspondent in Gaza reported that Israeli gunboats were approaching the coast of Gaza.

The attacks occurred one day after Hamas said it had reached an agreement with smaller armed groups in the territory to halt sporadic rocket fire toward Israel.

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Blast kills five Afghan border guards

2009-11-22T14:59:00.000+01:00

A roadside bomb explosion has killed at least five Afghan border guards in the southern province of Kandahar, according to police.

Provincial border police commander General Abdul Raziq said the blast happened in the Spin Boldak district bordering Pakistan during a pre-dawn patrol on Sunday.

"In an explosion this morning all five border policemen were killed when their vehicle was hit," the general told AFP.

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Aspirin kills 400% more people than H1N1 swine flu

2009-11-22T14:53:00.000+01:00

(NaturalNews) The CDC now reports that nearly 4,000 Americans have been killed by H1N1 swine flu. This number is supposed to sound big and scary, motivating millions of people to go out and pay good money to be injected with untested, unproven H1N1 vaccines. But let's put the number in perspective: Did you know that more than four times as many people are killed each year by common NSAID painkillers like aspirin?

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Iraq report: Secret plans for war, no plans for peace

2009-11-22T12:30:00.000+01:00

Today’s leaked documents shed no new light on the most oft-rehearsed of those charges – that he lied about, or exaggerated, the threat from Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. But they will make uncomfortable reading for the former prime minister in the light of some of his other claims.

In President George W Bush’s January 2002 State of the Union address, fresh from what then looked like a victory in Afghanistan, he ratcheted up the rhetoric against Saddam Hussein. He named Iraq as one of three states in an “axis of evil”, promising: “I will not stand by as peril draws closer and closer.”

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Venezuela blows up border bridges with Colombia

2009-11-22T12:25:00.000+01:00

Venezuela has blown up two pedestrian bridges on its border with Colombia in the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the Andean neighbours.

Soldiers destroyed the walkways because they were being used by illegal militia and drug traffickers, said Eusebio Aguero, an army general based in the border state of Táchira.

"They are two foot bridges that paramilitary fighters used, where gasoline and drug precursors were smuggled, subversive groups entered. They are not considered in any international treaty."

However Colombia denounced the action as a violation of international law that would worsen the diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

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US missile strike leaves 10 dead in Waziristan

2009-11-20T12:10:00.001+01:00

A US unmanned drone aircraft has fired several missiles into a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing at least ten people and injuring several others.

The strike took place in the restive North Waziristan tribal district on Friday.

The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured were said to be in critical condition. The attack took place in an area where people do not have access to urgent medical assistance.

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Osama bin Laden’s son wants to work for UN

2009-11-20T11:34:00.000+01:00

In an interview with the New Statesman, the fourth eldest son of the world's most wanted man said that he "passionately wants to try to stop violence".

Asked whether he plans to enter politics or public life, Mr bin Laden said: "I do not believe that I would be a good politician – I have a habit of speaking the truth, even when it does not serve me well. But I would like to be in a position to promote peace. I believe that the United Nations would be ideal for me."

He said he ended contact with his father in April 2001 but that he was once asked to take up arms at a meeting with his fighters.

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Diplomats say EU choose Belgian as new president

2009-11-20T11:12:00.002+01:00

BRUSSELS — Diplomats say EU leaders have opted for little-known compromise candidate Belgian Premier Herman Van Rompuy to become the bloc’s first full-time president.

Envoys added that the 27 leaders have also agreed to appoint Britain’s EU commissioner Catherine Ashton as the bloc’s new foreign policy chief, replacing Spaniard Javier Solana.

Ashton has been the EU’s trade commissioner since last year.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been formally announced at summit talks Thursday.

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Six transported to hospital after getting swine flu vaccine

2009-11-20T11:09:00.000+01:00

Paramedics were called to Sacred Hearts Academy today after about a dozen people appeared to have a reaction to the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

Officials say the apparent reactions could have a lot to do with anxiety rather than the vaccine itself.

Approximately 300 students and 100 faculty at Sacred Hearts Academy got armed against the H1N1 swine flu Monday morning in the State's school vaccination clinic.

Kindergartener Tai Martinez was one of those students

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Transparency International: Afghanistan 2nd most corrupt nation

2009-11-19T15:32:00.000+01:00

KABUL: Afghanistan, a recipient of billions of dollars in international aid, achieved another dubious distinction on Tuesday when an influential global watchdog ranked it as the second most corrupt nation of the world.

The Berlin-based Transparency International said in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) Somalia stayed the world's most corrupt country, followed by conflict-torn Afghanistan and Iraq.

As the world economy begins to register a tentative recovery and some nations continue to wrestle with ongoing conflict and insecurity, it is clear that no region of the world is immune to the perils of corruption.

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Two women lose babies after swine flu jab in Portugal

2009-11-19T15:14:00.000+01:00

A pregnant woman who took the swine flu jab on Friday was rushed to the CUF Descobertas on Monday but lost her baby, according to the Jose de Mello, a Portuguese health official.

TV42.pt reports that the 34-year-old woman is still in hospital and has yet to give birth to the lifeless fetus.

Conceca Talhado, the head of the gynaecology department at CUF Descobertas said that an autopsy would be needed to establish whether there was a link between the swine flu vaccine and the death of the fetus.

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Leaked Video: Racist U.S. Soldiers

2009-11-19T12:19:00.000+01:00

Obama popularity below 50 percent for first time: poll

2009-11-19T12:14:00.000+01:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama's job approval rating has dipped below 50 percent nationally for the first time, as Americans worry about the war in Afghanistan, a new poll released Wednesday found.

The Quinnipiac University poll showed 48 percent of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, compared to 42 percent who disapprove.

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UK: Secret CCTV cameras fitted INSIDE people's homes to spy on neighbours outside

2009-11-19T11:56:00.001+01:00

CCTV cameras are being fitted inside family homes by council 'snoopers' to spy on neighbours in the street outside, it was revealed today.

The £1,000 security cameras have been placed inside properties but are trained on the streets to gather evidence of anti-social behaviour.

Each device is linked to a laptop computer and accessible online by police and council officials 24 hours a day.

But the trial inside two homes by Croydon council in south London has sparked new fears about invasion of privacy and Britain's ‘surveillance society’.

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UN abandons hunger reduction target

2009-11-19T00:21:00.000+01:00

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations abandoned its hunger reduction targets in advance of the World Food Summit on Food Security that opened in Rome on November 16. Instead, it has substituted a vague phrase. From now on, it will aim “to take action towards sustainably eradicating hunger at the earliest possible date.”

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'US military suicides will hit new high in 2009'

2009-11-18T23:58:00.000+01:00

A US general says that suicides in the US military will rise to a new high this year.

“We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year,” General Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, told a Pentagon briefing. “This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way.”

Chiarelli said the causes of the suicides were still unclear and noted that roughly a third of the soldiers who took their own lives had never been deployed abroad.

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Italian doctors reject swine flu vaccine

2009-11-18T23:54:00.000+01:00

Italian family physicians refuse to prescribe the A/H1N1 vaccine for their patients, claiming that the risks of the vaccine outweigh its benefits.

Latest figures revealed that swine flu has infected more than 540,000 individuals, claiming the lives of 30 in Italy.

The country has ordered some 48 million doses of the A/H1N1 vaccine, enough to immunize 24 million of its population, and plans to start a mass vaccination program in the coming weeks.

Italian media outlets have, however, claimed that many of these vaccines would be useless as the majority of Italians including the Deputy Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio and the Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno have decided against vaccination.

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Ukraine Black Lungs: Fears unknown flu-strain to spread

2009-11-18T23:51:00.000+01:00